From Rio de Janeiro and its 92° days to 34° frozen in Antarctic era and “night” this voyage was diverse! We were lucky to see the weather and exceptional views. The intersection from Falklands to the Peninsula was pretty smooth and the Seven Sea’s greatness made every move work very well. Suddenly, a frozen landscape began to appear.
We approached Antarctica via the South Shetland Islands, then through the Nelson Strait, then southward towards Greenwich and the Livingston Islands. These “outer belts” of rocky islands are made up of volcanic materials (seeds derived from volcanic topography). The cause is the subduction of the Phoenix plate below the Antarctic plate, starting in the central Jurassic (~160 Ma) and continuing into the Neogene (23 Ma).
Google Earth imagines the route you would like to enter the peninsula. The captain took us to Half Moon Bay on Livingston Island and then further south to Deception Island.
Clouds parted ways to reveal Livingston Island, the second largest in the South Shelans after King George Island. In your field of vision you will find Mt. Tangra, where you can see the peak of your helmet. The peak is 1254 m (4114 feet). Many fossil plants and trees come from sedimentary rocks on Livingston Island. You can access papers on Livingston Island’s paleobotany.
Deception Island was first spotted by Sealer in January 1820, and later that year visited by the famous American Sealer Nathaniel Palmer. The British built a station within the bay in the 1940s, but were destroyed by a volcanic eruption that shook the island between December 1967 and February 1970. We highlighted the location of the Bailey Head with the green circle, a feature shown in the previous photo. .
Many details about the geological history of the deception island are still approaching, but not because of a lack of research. Classified as a large shield volcano, the seabed is 30km (or about 20 miles) in diameter! The island gradually grew from water depths of over 4,000 feet (1300 m) and then broke to the surface either as a surface or subglacial building. Its original altitude is unknown. Between 10,000 and 6,000 bp (a few years ago today), most of the volcano was largely due to large-scale watercolor steam explosions, such as the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883 and the Serra volcano that created the Greek island of Santorini. It is unknown as it was devastated. About 3,600 years ago. On Deception Island, hot magmas can encounter seawater or melted glacial ice, creating a steam explosion that creates this large caldera. Soon afterwards, water from the Strait of Bransfield entered depression, forming a portfoster 6 miles (or 10 kilometers) in diameter. Most of the exposed rocks today are post-caldera rocks. Historical documents of the eruption are from 1839 to 1842 and from the 1960s.
Take in the views inside the Caldera and Portfoster, and check out our previous posts here and here.
Sails south from Desperion Island – a lonely iceberg at sunset on February 1, 2025 (9:20pm local time).
December 2nd, 7:40am. Covered in the mist is not a rare occurrence on the Antarctic Peninsula, but no one signed up to see this. Our goal was Wilhelmina Bay, where we tried two different entrances on both sides of Nansen Island. It’s still thick fog. So we woke up and returned to the Gerrush Strait, expecting a clear skies.
And it worked! This is a view from outside the Bay of Wilhelmina to the south. We spent our second day here and cruised towards the Niemeyer Channel and Fournier Bay. But on the third day…
I found myself at the north entrance to the Errera Channel (background). The channel was full of ice, but was eventually pulled up adjacent to Cuberville Island (right).
It may be difficult to see, but be aware of the pinkish area of Cuberville Island where gentlemen penguins are nesting.
A wonderful deck 12 passengers enjoying a brilliant sunny day!
Clouds were dancing along the mountain peaks above the Arctowski Peninsula.
The humpback whales also appeared for us. When we headed to Doleman Bay there were at least five pairs.
And the sky opened! Streaming clouds over ice world.
This completes my three-day stay on the Antarctic Peninsula. In future posts I will be posting about Terra Del Fuego and Chilean Fjords. As Captain Marco likes to say about greatness, “Chao for now!”
